Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/618

 Schæfferi, Fig. 4, I, II), the middle of the antennæ are characterized by very strong and well-defined expansions, and are partly covered with hair. The palpi are very long, and the tongue is provided with two tufts of hair. These form together a large yellow crest on the anterior portion of the head (Fig. 4, II). In midsummer this beetle is occasionally to be met with on the flower of the milfoil and corn marigold. If one of these beetles be caught and examined with a lens, the crest is usually found to be covered with a multitude of little yellow pollen-grains.

Among the long-horned beetles the Lepturidæ, are specially well adapted for procuring food from flowers. The anterior part of the



body (head and thorax) is narrow and elongated, so as to enable the insect to push its way pretty deeply into the interior of the flower. The mouth-parts are well developed, and stand straight forward from the head. The labium is usually hairy, and is thus extremely useful in extracting honey (Fig. 5, I, II).

Compared with the beetles, Diptera or flies take a very prominent position as promoters of cross-fertilization. One great advantage which they have over the former class is their power of free and rapid motion. While the beetles are almost without exception compelled to adopt a slow mode of locomotion, the movements of the flies are among the most rapid known in the insect world. The number of native species of Diptera is very large; of those which frequent flowers we shall here consider but a few (Figs. 6-10). One of the largest and most rapid flying of the Diptera is the humble-bee fly (Bombylius major, Fig. 6). In this species the proboscis, which is situated on the anterior portion of the head, is of considerable length, so that the insect can reach the honey even when it is secreted some way down the